Who is this official, and does he reflect the position of Hizbullah decision makers? Is it for propaganda purposes? We don’t know. If true, this is a promising sign war will not break out between Israel and Syria despite a rapid deterioration of relations since Israel’s September 6 attack inside Syria, now confirmed. The fact that Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah was forced to apologize publicly after the war he ignited in 2006 resulted (whether you want to blame Israel or not) in the destruction of much of the country, Hizbullah may well want to avoid another such war. Syria knows it can’t challenge Israel militarily, at least in a conventional war. It has been much more successful in confronting/applying pressure to Israel by arming and supporting guerrilla proxies — the PLO and other Palestinian guerrilla organizations in the past, and Hamas and Hizbullah most prominently today. Hizbullah demonstrated in 2006 that Israel has no real answer to a war of missiles, which in turn emboldened Syria (that explains the increased chatter over possible Golan Heights negotiations which took place since). Thus, if Hizbullah refuses to join in any future war between Israel and Syria, Syria is not likely to launch a war. We shall see.